Resurrecting/Converting CPS2 Black All in One Board

So I've see a people talk about reviving regular B Boards for cps2, but what about those All in one black boards? Below I have created a step by step process to revive or convert your CPS2 black board using a CPS3 Darksoft kit.

I am in no way telling anyone to kill a perfectly working all in one board. I only suggest doing this if the board is already phoenixed or suicide.

Every time you see an all in one board, 90% of the time it's Marvel vs Capcom. While I do enjoy this game, to me there are better games to turn this into. So the first step we're going to take is downloading CPS2Black. This software basically turns your rom files and packages them into a BIN file for your CPS3 to read the files.

2. Before we proceed with what game you're looking to turn this into, I believe only PALG games will work on this board. I have not heard of anyone converting to anything outside of PALG, so please take this into consideration.

3. Download your game rom files from Avalaunch website OR if you're looking to utilize undamned's InfiniKey, you can use original game roms. Please note you will only need roms 3-10 for CPS2Black

4. Extract CPS2Black and your roms in the same folder. Rename the rom files so that they're identical in the name, then change the file extension to go in the rom number order. In this guide I am using Super Turbo as my selected game.

5. Open up CMD.exe and run it as administrator. You will then change to the directory that CPS2Black and your roms files are located. To do this, type "CD c:\your directory goes here". In my example it is located in C:\CPS2BLACK

6. Now type CPS2Black. This will give you all the options available for CPS2black

7. Since we are going to be using a CPS3 and Darksoft cart to write to the SIMM, We will use the -SP option. We are using Super Turbo in this example, so we are going to type "cps2black -sp sfxj". Notice that it states it couldnt read rom 10, this is because Super turbo only uses roms 3-9.

8. It has now created a BIN file for you. We are going to take this bin file and burn it to a CD. I prefer to use IMGBurn because it's free and does everything you need when it comes to burning media. Put a blank CDR in your optical drive and open up imgburn. Then select "Write Files/folders to disc

9. Select the bin file that CPS2black created for you, then click the folder > disc image to proceed.

Side note, you can add more than 1 BIN file created by CPS2black. So if you want to add different versions of your game or just different games, you can do that.

Imgburn is then going to nag you that you're trying to create a data disc using an image file. Ignore this message and click yes to proceed.

Another window will pop up asking you to create a volume name. You can name this to whatever you want. I typically just type the rom name.

10. Your file(s) are now burned to a disc. Now you're gonna wanna pop out that CPS3 darksoft kit. Remove the 32mb simm from the CPS2 board and place it in slot 7 on the CPS3 board.

Turn on the the CPS3 board and make sure you hold Player 1 Start button as you turn it on to enter Darksoft menu. Select "Disk and File". Please allow the disc drive at least 30 seconds to read the drive before you do this, otherwise if you try to go to disk and files too fast, it'll freeze and you'll have to reboot the system and start over.

Select your BIN file by hitting SHOT 1

Select option 2 to "Write to Flash Memory"

Then choose the 32mb Simm in Slot7 by pressing SHOT 1 twice. The SIMM will then began the erasing and writing process.

11. Once the SIMM is done writing, you will be pushed back to the main menu of the Disk and Files. You can now turn off your CPS3 and remove the simm from SLOT7.

12. If you are just reviving the board using avalaunch/phoenix code, simply insert the SIMM back into CPS2 board and you should be back to playing your game :)

13. If you're looking to do a conversion, remove all the mask roms and Qsound roms from the board. Replace them with your newly burned mask roms and Qsound roms. Place your 32MB Simm back into it's slot as well if you haven't already

14. You will need to adjust the jumpers. I've noticed that all PALG conversions that I've done required that all the jumpers to be OPEN. By default for MVC it's set to 0101. Change this to 0000

15. If you're using original encrypted code, now is the time to solder your infikey to the CN9 connector that's near the SIMM slot. I will not show the process for this since it's readily available in undamned infikey thread.

Now I wanna add my own touch to it and replace that old MVC label with the repro label that I made

16. Now connect your CPS2 to your cabinet or supergun. Hopefully you'll get a screen of your new conversion or resurrection

Hey guys, I have some issues trying to use my MvsC board with another game, mostly with the sound, but also with the graphics for the game I've tried that use maskroms for graphics in locations 14/16/18/20.

So far I've tried :

a burnt Dimahoo eprom set (does not use locations 14/16/18/20) => the game seems to look & play fine, BUT I have sound issues (like missing 50% of voice/effect samples and parts of the music)

an original Battle Circuit eprom/maskrom set (does not use locations 14/16/18/20) => same as above

an original Super Gem Fighter eprom/maskrom set (DOES use locations 14/16/18/20) => same as above + wrong colors on some character sprites (initially I was completely missing those sprites, until I opened both JP4 and JP6 jumpers as suggested above)

I've used the "Phoenix" romset used by MAME to create the SIMM files with cps2black, rather than the Team Avalaunch set or the original + infinikey, but I don't think that should make a difference in this case.

Regarding the fact that only PAL-G games can be converted on this board : afaik the PAL only influences the graphics, right ?
Super Gem fighter is using a PAL-G as well, but I still have issues with the colors described above.
Dimahoo is supposed to use a PAL-G as well, and Battle Circuit is using a PAL-D.
Also, SSF2X converted above is supposed to be a PAL-B.

I have the original PALs for Battle Circuit & Super Gem Fighter, but I'm not sure they are going to be of help with this board.

Any advice ?

I've tried opening JP2 but the board doesn'boot in this case

Edit: attached some pics of the Super Gem Fighter graphical issues.
Weird thing is, in the intro the first few frames of Felicia's sprites have wrong colors as shown, and then they become Ok when she starts to bounce like a ball.

Images

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The post was edited 3 times, last by parodius (May 15th 2019, 3:41pm).

Pocket Fighter does utilize 1MB mask roms. I've never actually tried to convert anything that uses mask roms less than 4mb on an All in one board. Not saying that this is the issue, but just a thought.

I've used the "Phoenix" romset used by MAME to create the SIMM files with cps2black, rather than the Team Avalaunch set or the original + infinikey, but I don't think that should make a difference in this case.

Some of us suspect minor decryption errors still exist within these decrypted sets.
Now maybe that is true, and maybe its not... I have zero proof to offer here.
What I can tell you is the only way to know for sure that you are getting 100% the game as it was intended to run is with encrypted sets + Infini Key (or restored/reprogrammed key).

Those games don't use any rom in locations 14/16/18/20, so JP6 can actually be set to either 0 or 1, as this jumper doesn't have any effect on games that only have 32mbit gfx roms in locations 13/15/17/19.

The post was edited 4 times, last by parodius: More precise explanation on JP6 effect (May 19th 2019, 9:57am).

Ok, here's the explanation as to why both my Batlle Circuit & Super Gem Fighter rom kits needed JP3 set to 1 : it actually toggles the 8Mbit sound roms pinout to use the 27c1000 pinout, instead of the more common 27c010 pinout.